18 graves for 18 family members killed in latest Israeli airstrike (via Twitter)

The more details that emerge about the Israeli bombings in Gaza, the less likely it seems that Israel is merely targeting militants, extremists and weapons caches. Let’s consider the latest attack:

According to reports coming from inside Gaza, at least 21 Palestinians were killed on late Saturday – none of which have proven to be Hamas operatives.

It proved to be the single deadliest attack since the Israeli assault began just one week ago. In Gaza City, a bomb fell on the house of a police chief named Tayseer al-Batsh killing most his family and leaving him in critical condition.

Among the 18 members of his family killed in the strike were four children identified as Mohammed Issam al-Batsh, 17, Manar Majed Batsh, 13, Qusay Issam al-Batsh, 12, and Anas Alaa al-Batsh, 10.

On Sunday, the streets of Gaza City were packed with mourners as the bodies of the victims were carried to their resting place.

Killing a police chief and claiming he’s a militant is dubious, but demolishing his entire house and asking the world to believe that they couldn’t have known the family was in there is indefensible.

Several of the remaining members of the Batsh family mourn the loss of their relatives. (via Twitter)

The United Nations has been slow to condemn Israel, but its cries that they are the victims seem to be wearing thin. According to a finding by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 77 percent of those killed in Gaza were civilians. Navi Pillay, the UN’s High Commissioner called on both sides to stop the fighting, but specifically cited Israel’s mounting number of civilian murders as extremely troubling.

“From a human rights point of view, I utterly condemn these rocket attacks and more especially I condemn Israel’s excessive acts of retaliation,” U.N. Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told journalists in Vienna on Thursday.

“I am extremely concerned by what’s happening,” she added on the sidelines of a conference. [source]

Despite the condemnation, Israel has continued its campaign.

Among other “targets” Israel struck this weekend were a mosque and a center for the handicapped. According to medical staff in Gaza, several handicapped women were in critical condition in the aftermath.

It should be noted that many media outlets continue to refer to these events as a “war.” That is a misnomer. A war evokes the idea that the warring sides are experiencing damage, perhaps not equally, but at the very least in unison. Instead, this “war” is little more than the one-sided destruction of a territory by an aggressor. While Israel points to mortar fire coming into their lands from Gaza, they neglect to mention that hardly any of them reach anywhere near their targets. It goes a long way to explaining why Israel has lost a total of zero people while over 100 Palestinians have died since fighting began less than a week ago.

It is for that reason that several news networks have been caught using images of destroyed Palestinian homes as Israeli homes. In a lopsided war, there just aren’t enough compelling pictures of Israeli suffering.